stretched. without further details many other issues were tackled during our joint meeting and i believe i should give the floor to our guest the russian foreign minister to make a statement and then we will open the floor for questions. ♪ >> 24 is "real money." you are the most important part of the show. join our live conversation on twitter using the handle @aj real money. i've been telling you about the stock markets bull run. the s&p 500 which mimics the stock holds in your 401k has gained a crazy 25% since the

beginning of 2013. the year is not over yet. this is kind of crazy. that's more than double you get in an average year. but those big gains have probably thrown your portfolio, assuming you have one, out of whack by making it too stock heavy. that can spell danger to you in the future if you do not rebalance soon. let's say that you're an investor you want to take on a moderate level of risk, i base this on the idea that maybe you're 50 years old. this is geared for you. 60% this stocks and 40% in bonds. a real port tollio would break these off into further holdings and include alternatives, gold a precious metals. but let's assume that you started 2013 with a portfolio that looks something like this. since january 1st, it has increased your stock to 66% of

your portfolio, your bonds have shrunk to 40%, and it's not what you intended it to be. this is now the portfolio of someone who takes more risks than you want to. we brought analysts and experts on the show to debate whether its time to get out or stay put in this bull market. that's the wrong question. it's not an on off or switc or off switch. it's not binary. it should reflect your risk tolerance. doing that you should achieve your investment goals over the long run. now is the time to take a look at your portfolio, not the stock market, your portfolio and make sure that it meets the risk criteria that you've set for yourself and think about rebalancing now if it doesn't. today on twitter and facebook have you balanced your

investments as a result of the stock market run up? jose says current market volatility means daily checks and tweaks. no one is safe until fundamentals come back. and pete says no need, i'm always set for bull market. always high risk. that's where you make money. and loss, too. >> a 10% drift in your asset allocation is a sure sign you need to consider rebalancing. ryan, good to see you. that example i just showed. you thought your stocks from 60, they moved to 66. that's a 10% move in your allocation. that should an signal. people would look at that and think, what a great year.

>> when you talk about balancing your portfolio, over 90% is determined by how i couldn't how you allocate your assets. what are your risk tolerances and what are your specific asset allocation structure. >> there are a million places you can figure out your risk tolerance. there are books, website. >> yes, go to google and look up asset allocation, you can find one for yourself. >> it will ask you a bunch of questions about where you should be allocated. should you simply allocate because you're out of balance? i think people should allocate the way they d do it going to te dentist. do it regularly. >> before we put a dollar in the stock market, okay, i'm 50 years old, 55, 60, 90% stocks and 10% bonds are wondering when the

stock market was down why did my stocks go away? because they had too much risk. but if they do 50% stock and 50% bonds, i'll stick to that. at the beautiful part about rebalancing is what it does we all heard buy low, sell high. rebalancing does that. in your example you went up to 66%. that means the stocks are higher and that means you want to sell and buy things that are cheaper in your portfolio. it's a natural way to buy low sell high, as opposed to a lot of emotion, people say 66% stocks, i should buy more because we're going higher. as traders we're used to saying we love when the retailers come to the market because they're last to the party. >> people get excited by names, but really most people should be involved in some version of a fund. mutual funds. index funds and exchange traded funds. they're all a little bit different.

what do you suggest? >> i love exchange trader funds. a lot of questions i get asked is on can you buy the entire market? yeah, you can buy spy which buys the entire s&p 500. or the entire dow jones divertty. you'll have the ultimate exposure and ultimate di die officersfication in your. >> and you can open a trade account, but you're traiting a basket. >> and it's a beautiful thing. they don't have a portfolio manager. a lot of draw backs, they're computer generated. >> which means they're inexpensive. >> but for a lot of individuals who want more risk, who say you know what, i like the way he was

trading, i want his expertise, you don't have that, but you do get exposure to the market. as the market goes. >> people say china is going gang busters, that might have been a place you want to actively trade mutual funds because it's a real manager. >> the beautiful thing about the traitor exchange funds. we just had twitter come out, a great exchange to trade media stocks. if you don't want to go with one particular stock in one particular industry, go to a broad portfolio. they've been around since the 70s, the trader funds have come along in the early 90s but they have accumulated the asset value, and they are the hot new thing on the industry. >> ryan mack, we'll continue this discussion. >> thank you. >> obamacare enrollment numbers

are in, and they're pretty low. about 106,000 people signed up for health insurance in the first month. that's roughly one-fifth what the administration was hoping for. but there is still five months ago before open enrollment ends on march 31st. meanwhile, ensurers have been canceling plans that don't meet the new law, that don't meet the mandates. that means higher costs. former president bill clinton said those people should be allowed to keep their own plans even if it means changing the law, but experts say it's not that simple. >> they're going to have to offer a plan that the insurance company may not want to continue to offer. i'm not sure, some of this is happening because the insurance companies are saying these are no longer economically viable. i don't know how you tell the insurance industry you got to keep offering that same plan. >> house republicans are expected to vote on a bill that would allow people to keep their

insurance plans if they like them. that adds pressure to the administration to fix the system and keep in mind this sort of bill is targeted at those who buy insurance on their own. i call them the self-insured, and who earn too much for subsidies. they make up 2% to 3% of all americans. most americans who get health insurance get it through their jobs. this economy is either sizzling hot or cooling down fast. we'll get a bird's-eye view from one of the country's foremost economist. you may want to make notes and make decisions based on what he said. and the engineer turned matchmaker how he's pairing today's programmer with tomorrow's coders.

al jazeera america... >>introduces... "america tonight". >>a fresh take on the stories that connect to you. >>grounded. >>real. >>unconventional. >>an escape from the expected. (vo) al jazeera america we understand that every news story begins and ends with people. >> the efforts are focused on rescuing stranded residents. (vo) we pursue that story beyond the headline, past the spokesperson, to the streets. >> thousands of riot police deployed across the capitol. (vo) we put all of our global resources behind every story. >> it is a scene of utter devastation. (vo) and follow it no matter where it leads, all the way to you. al jazeera america. take a new look at news.

>> al jazeera america is a straight-forward news channel. >> its the most exciting thing to happen to american journalism in decades. >> we believe in digging deep. >> its unbiased, fact-based, in-depth journalism.

>> you give them the facts, dispense with the fluff and get straight to the point. >> i'm on the ground every day finding stories that matter to you. >> in new orleans... >> seattle bureau... >> washington... >> detroit... >> chicago... >> nashville... >> los angeles... >> san francisco... >> al jazeera america, take a new look at news. the stream is uniquely interactive television. in fact, we depend on you, your ideas, your concerns. >> all these folks are making a whole lot of money. >> you are one of the voices of this show. >> i think you've offended everyone with that kathy. >> hold on, there's some room to offend people, i'm here. >> we have a right to know what's in our food and monsanto do not have the right to hide it from us. >> so join the conversation and make it your own. >> watch the stream. >> and join the conversation online @ajamstream. >> president obama's pick to lead the federal reserve, janet yellen, say its falling far short of its potential.

it's designed to preempt lawmakers set to grill her over the monthly bond buying program. the fed's purposes have kept interest rates down. many expected the fed to pull back on its buying spree this fall, but a dimmer outlook thanks to stuff going on in washington, was cited as good enough reason not to do so now. the pull back will fall to the next fed chair who takes office in january. if confirmed yellen will be the first woman to head the fed. >> corporate america often turns to business consultants for guidance and intelligence to boost their bottom line. ihness s is one such consultan consultants. it counsels 400 companies that are on the fortune 500.

he has a long career in global economic forecasting. he joins us now. thank you for being with us. >> let me can you this, we're in this moment where if you are invested in homes, if you're invested in the stock market, if you have access to capital, you can borrow money cheaply. there hasn't been a better economy than this in a long time, yet i run into people, they tweet me all the time. you're talking about a new recession, we haven't gotten out of the old recession. i still can't find a job. when you look at the american economy, good-bad, hot, cold? >> it's luke warm. it's doing all right. it's better than other countries around the world, but it's not where we want it to be. that's part of yellen's testimony tomorrow. it's not where we want it to be. the unemployment isn't down where we like to see it. growth is not at

3, 3.5 where we like to see. it's okay but not great. >> we do know the measure of gdp came in higher than we expected, but we also know that the fed is putting $85 billion into the economy every month. i mean, we agonize last year with the sequester of $80 billion in one year, and the fed is putting that much in the economy every month. what would the economy look like if we were not doing that? >> well, if the fed went buying these massive amounts of bonds that it's doing, $85 billion a month, the result would likely be much higher mortgage rates, and it would mean that the housing recovery which we've enjoyed in the last couple of years would not have happened. that would be bad news. i think in the end hopefully history will come to the conclusion that it was a good decision for all its problems and i'm not going to defend it

to the hilt, but this balance kept long-term super rates including mortgage rates down, and it's been good for the economy. >> for my viewer, it's unusual, a 25% run in the stock market, i don't know what happens to that in the future, what happens to housing prices. mortgage rates could go up. how do you plan for this? what should the average person be thinking in terms of their own financial planning for the next year? >> you know, i would certainly say that i'd be very surprise first degree the stock market rose another 25% over the next year. so it will probably plateau. i don't think it's going to fall very much. i don't think valuations are that high relative to say, earnings or corporate profits. in essence i'm not worried about a bubble in the stock market. in terms of the economy as a whole i think the hope of the fed is that, in fact, what they've done will keep this recovery going, will generate a self-sustaining recovery that will under pin what's going on in the stock market.

>> which is a good way of saying you're generally more optimistic than sum, especially those who think we're headed to a recession or some who think we're in a recession. >> it's true. there are a lot of people who gave up on the job market. the long-term unemployment rate is high by historical standards. by a lot of measures the jobs market hasn't done that well. it's better than it was three years ago, but it's still not where we want it to be. for some tea people it still feels like a recession, but as a whole we're recovering. >> thanks to talk to us. the chief committee at ihs. he's the matchmaker of the software world. his client are not looking for love, they're looking for work. >> and its sort of like a dating service. could you have two great people and they don't get along, that's fine. if they don't match with the first company, there are meant of others. and likewise, if you don't match

with the first candidate, we'll bring you another candidate. >> this is "real money with ali velshi."

>> from our headquarters in new york, here

>> top software programmers are a hot commodity. goingy pays software developers $130,000 on average.

and some companies offering $10,000 finders fees to employees who help recruit new software engineers. and thanks to a local tech mogul who matches employers with programmers who need to get a foot in the door. david shuster has the story. >> reporter: meet jim. glass-blowing artist, engineer, and businessman. he cofounded the payment company square with co-founder jack dorsey, and now he's also a matchmaker. >> we saw this huge need in st. louis that were over a thousand job openings. we also at the same time knew people who had program ming kills skills who couldn't get these jobs. >> reporter: he started launch code, an initiative he funds himself. >> we're taking programmers and we're placing them in jobs. and it uses peer programming where a programmer gets meshed

with a working professional in the new business, and they work together as a team. >> he started launch code at the end of september. he invited local companies to apply and the response was overwhelming. so the program identified 100 small and large companies to participate in the initial first round of paired placements. >> i have a lot of connections with the start up community, and i knew they would be strong supporters every company we talked to said yes. getting a decision out of monsanto in three months is amazing, we got a decision in three days. they need talented programmers, and they're not getting them through the standard means. >> the standard means are traditional head hunters. many business owners have specific programming needs that are not being medicine like food essentials, a company that aggregate s food label data information. it employees locally and is looking to fill three programming positions.

>> a lot of our processes are java and we had a hard time finding programmers in java. you had to pay more than you could afford or go out of the community. >> they are selected based on code knowledge and go through an interview process before matched with potential companies. once matched programmers are paid $15 an hour by their employer. most have background in writing code. adam harold grew up writing adventure programs. >> my dad showed me how to write q basic. >> he graduated in 2006 but chose a different career path. >> um, i've been a professional poker player for the last seven years. >> he was returning to st. louis from vancouver and looking to get back into programming when his father e-mailed him about this launch code, he applied and

went in for an interview. >> i've been out of the industry for awhile, and they said you're a good candidate. someone with the kills but needs to get their foot in the door. >> launch code and food essentials paired him up with a veteran programmer. >> one of the things that is really a pro in this programming is getting people who are smart guys and get them up to speed very fast in order to be able to produce good software so that the company can grow. >> applicants span the age and experience game mitt with most being younger and unemployed like keegan meyers who was placed at a start up. >> i was places at $15 an hour, now i'm looking at things i wouldn't have imagined. i'm looking into the possibility of either buying a car or getting my own apartment, moving out of my parents' house. >> jim said launch code goes beyond just an apprentice program.

>> it's sort of like a dating service. could you have two great people and they don't get along. that's fine. if you don't match with the first company, there are plenty of others. and if you don't match with the first candidate, we'll bring you another candidate. >> for keegan, it's been a life safer. >> without launch code, without push up, without being where i am now, i really do not know what i would have been doing. i would be working some dead-end job not using my tonights, not using my--not doing what i enjoy. >> david shuster, al jazeera. >> adam harold, the former professional poker player was hired last weeks and makes $40,000 annually but gets stock options. keegan was offered a job and will begin next week. computer programmer jobs will grow 12% over the next decade.

that's great news . a talent agent with a waiting list of tech professionals who are waiting to have the agency represent them. is that weird to you? that story you just saw? >> i'm not familiar with that company but it's not surprising at all. we as a nation and as an industry we need to desperately need to get more people in this field. the shortage works in you my favor but as an industry and as a country we need to train people. >> it's word because we talk about how good these jobs are, how much there is a talent shortage, why do they need agents? >> because there's a lot of work coming at them. they're beating away work with a stick. much like a talented musician, a famous musician has an agent to decide which deal and the best deal to create th the best deal. >> you're helping them curate their officers, getting them exposed to ones they wouldn't know. >> and career development for

strategy, long-term thinking around their goals for their future. >> is there a big--let's talk about who you represent. to what degree are these coders or programmers or software engineers. they're all the same. >> these are all the same thing. we also work with data scientists and projects managers. >> that category of people. >> yes. >> what is the difference between a good one and a bad one. and another one earns $150,000. >> a great programmer being worth 10 times someone who is average. we aim to find people who are at that level. >> is that something that one can develop, or are you just that way. you're wired to be a great programmer. >> i think it's a combination. it's not any different than any other sport, skill, talent, this is a field of talent. >> when you place somebody, what averages are you looking at?

google pays $128,000 on average. >> we work exclusively with freelancers, the range is 125 on the absolute low end with equity or differed compensation up to 400 plus an hour. >> unbelievable. >> and that's an hourly number. if you put that out there for an annual basis it's a very different number than what google is talking. >> michael, good for you. co-founder of 10 x management. don't forget our question, have you rebalanced your investments as a result of the stock market run up. if you want to see more on our stories go to our website at www.aljazeera.com /real money. a resident healthcare reporter got the story and learned 6 million people who buy their own insurance by make too much for a government subsidy

could end up paying more. then the president admitted that his pledge that if you like your insurance you can keep it isn't true. since then writing this particular wrong even former president clinton came out and said the president should do right by his pledge. now republicans are working to pass a bill allowing you to keep your plan if you like it. this is going to be a hard bill for democrats to fight. so there is a chance that the white house will find a way to make good on its pledge or congress will force them to. if you're one of these people in this situation, sit tight. your options may soon improve. that's our show for today. we travel to kalamazoo, michigan, and find out if a free college education could be coming to a city near you. i'm ali velshi. thanks for joining us. ♪

welcome to al jazeera america. here are the top stories at this hour: boeing machinists rejected a contract proposal that would have assured the company's new line of jumbo jets would be made in washington. union members with calling for a no vote did so because of a push to end the pension plan. >> according to the first official members only 106,000 people enrolled for health insurance during the first month. the website has been plagued with problems. the number is a fifth of what the obama administration projected. >> in camp pendleto